Of all recent movements in art history, postmodernism may be the most controversial. Nevertheless, the slippery-to-define postmodernist movement has steadily become an underlying philosophy for a wide range of work in design, literature, art, film, architecture, fashion, and cultural and literary criticism.
So what is/was post-modernism? This fall, visitors to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum can find out, as curators Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt, have stepped up to the challenge of reexamining the movement in the exhibit: Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990.
The curators may have a long way to go to win over postmodernism’s critics. In an article entitled: You Can’t be Serious, Peter Aspen of FT.com states that “[Postmodernism] is an unfortunate blot on the visual and conceptual landscape of the 20th century. An aberration. A spasm of kitsch that will prove to have no serious consequence on subsequent cultural trends.”
But Adamson and Pavitt’s exhibition, which runs from Sept 25th through January 15th 2012, makes a strong case in the movement’s defense. Pavitt and Adamson have diligently selected works in an attempt to clarify the definition of postmodernism and also “convey a sense of enthusiasm, not that dissipated feeling of we’ve done it all, there is nothing left.”
Among other things, the exhibit will include the original presentation drawing for Philip Johnson’s AT&T building from 1978, and paintings by Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol.
In case you can’t hop the pond over to London, you might be interested in Adamson and Pavitt’s book, Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-90, which presents the movement as not merely an aesthetic vocabulary, but also as a subversive attitude–a new way of looking at the world.
Considering that this time period encompasses my whole life to date as an artist, I would have to disagree with Peter Aspen’s point as well. Postmodernism is about “rounding up” and taking the whole of the available information and influence and carrying on from there. This is probably a phenomena that occurs during any turn of a century, or point in time that people have applied significance too. Art and design and the tools to create them are commonplace now, so there will be floods of excess while a natural weeding process occurs, and somewhere in there a new “thing” will be revealed. Look at all the interesting work happening in the multimedia realm, and as a reaction, in the world of traditional crafts, like paper cuts, wooden and vinyl toys, etc..